Live performance: Vultures (British Science Festival 2026)

On Saturday 19 September 2026, I premiered Vultures: a brand new piece of cross-form work, supported by Mayflower Studios, as part of British Science Festival 2026.

From the programme notes:

“Vultures is a cross-form piece by Matt Brombley, in response to research by Chiying Lam, working with migrant women at the cross-cultural hub as they engage with AI deep fakes. 

At the heart the performance is a custom-coded, biodynamic system that turns drawing into sound, sound into movement, and movement into drawing.

Gestures and marks on the canvas stretch vocoded voices of words and phrases from the research participants. Their voices move the projected image, generating overlapping grains of video to create motion. The movement of the figure is translated into new marks and gestures on the canvas. 

This is weaved together with vocals, samples and other sonic elements into a semi-improvised performance, guided by a one page score.

The piece takes its title from the words of one participant’s reaction to deep fake video: “very convincing, they’re like vultures”. 

Emerging from that central metaphor, the piece draws in themes from the research and their resonance with Matt’s practice and identity, exploring tensions inherent in the relationships we have with, and the relationships between, technology, family, and the environment; relationships with and between doubt and belief; progress and reflection; identity and belonging; relationship with and between life and death.”